This being the week after Labor Day I wanted to pass along an
interesting concept called coworking. Most of you are familiar with
the idea of a shared tenant services for small businesses that can't
afford their own office space but want to take advantage of a common
collection of services such as fax machines, conference rooms,
reception areas, and the like.

But what if the $400 or so a month fee
for these services is still out of the park for your nascent business
owner? And what if working out of a coffee shop or other free Wifi
place isn't really professional enough? In between these use cases is
where coworking comes in handy.

Coworking goes under various names, including the "Jelly"
(workatjelly.com) movement started by Amit Gupta. The idea is that
people who want more than just a virtual water cooler of email,
Tweeting and posting online can actually get out of the house and
spend some time nearby other humans doing their work too. The goal is
to create a community of like-minded people but from different walks
of life, skill sets, and interests  just like your local Faceless Big
Company Cubicle Warren.

Bring your own laptop and cell phone, tie into
a Wifi connection, and partake of the included coffee. The "rent" is
reasonable  about $50 a month or even less, depending on how often
you need to show up. Some facilities have more, such as multiple-line
phones and conference rooms, and some have less. All are a step up
from Starbucks, though.

There are lots of resources on coworking here
(http://blog.coworking.info) and the Jelly main site also lists the
locations in major cities, including one in St. Louis. So in the
interests of research, I paid them a visit last week and was impressed
by the concept. Our coworking facility is in a residential
neighborhood at the very southern end of the city, a few blocks from
the Mississippi River.

It is actually in a renovated home owned by
Lisa Rokusek, complete with full kitchen and bathroom and guest
bedroom. Lisa is a recruiter who lives nearby and first renovated the
house as a guesthouse before she got into coworking. Now she is hooked
on the concept and is developing a few other properties as well. She
has about ten regular coworkers who come anywhere from several times a
week to just a few times a month.

You would think that someone who recruits people for new jobs would
want something more private, but Lisa was adamant that the idea works
for her. She doesn't need a full-time, 9-to-5 office because she is
often out visiting clients at their offices. And when she really needs
some privacy, she steps outside with her cell phone to make the call.
"And it gives my coworkers a sense of openness, because they are
seeing how the sausages are being made," she told me.

Still, my work style wouldnt tolerate such close quarters  at the
St. Louis coworking site that I visited last week, it could easily
house ten people in two small rooms. I like it nice and quiet and no
one else around, because that is what I need to write and to interview
people on the phone. But perhaps you are different, and crave the
company and companionship. You might want to investigate coworking,
and see if there is someone in your area that has such a setup, or
even start your own house.

David Strom is an expert on Internet and networking technologies who
was the former editor-in-chief at Network Computing, Tom's
Hardware.com, and DigitalLanding.com. He currently writes regularly
for PC World, Baseline Magazine, and the New York Times and is also a
professional speaker, podcaster and blogs at strominator.com and WebInformant.tv